Alkazar (film)
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | Alkazar (1941) Battle for the Alcazar (1955) |
| Original title | L'assedio dell'Alcazar Sin novedad en el Alcazar |
 | |
| Country of production |
Italy Spain |
| original language | Italian |
| Publishing year | 1940 |
| length | 112 (Italy), 105 (Germany 1955) minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 16 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Augusto Genina |
| script | Augusto Genina Alessandro De Stefani |
| production |
Renato Bossoli Carlo Bossoli Ezio Lavoretti |
| music | Antonio Veretti |
| camera |
Jan Stallich Francesco Izzarelli Vincenzo Seratrice |
| cut | Fernando Tropea |
| occupation | |
| |
Alkazar (awarded title German Reich 1941) or Kampf um den Alcazar (awarded title Federal Republic of Germany 1955) is a war and propaganda film by Augusto Genina made at the end of 1939 and marked the most important collaboration between the two fascist regimes Mussolini- Italy and Franco- Spain on the cinematic sector. The main roles are played by the Italian Fosco Giachetti and the French Mireille Balin (both in the photo on the right).
action
Toledo 1936. The Spanish civil war has broken out, and in the city's fortress, the Alcazar (in the original: Alcázar ), Spanish militiamen loyal to Franco have entrenched themselves under the leadership of the staunch fascist Colonel Moscardó, who are defending the Spanish republic under no circumstances want to surrender. A life-and-death struggle ensues, which both sides wage with unbelievably dogged severity. The besiegers of the Alcazár are constantly bombarding the fortress, from the ground as well as from the air, trying to starve its inhabitants. But Moscardó issued the slogan that there would be no surrender and that one would have to hold out until the troops of the later Caudillo provide relief and liberation.
Woven into this core plot is a love story between the handsome captain Vela and the young Carmen Herrera, a girl from Madrid who was in Toledo when the revolution broke out and can no longer leave the besieged city. Carmen is characterized as a typical city dweller: a little (too) light-footed, easygoing and quite cynical. The dramatic events cause a change of mind and character in her. She sees the “heroic deeds” that those who want to survive perform in the everyday life of the besieged fortress, and admires the generosity and sense of duty that characterize Captain Vela, whom she admires. From his affection for the woman from the capital, deeply felt love grows, which, according to the morality of the time, naturally has to result in a marriage promise.
Production notes and trivia
Alkazar was a collaboration desired by the top state level in Fascist Italy and Francoist Spain and was intended to pay homage to the supposed “heroism” of Francisco Franco's troops during the Spanish Civil War in defending the Alcazar in Toledo.
The film was made shortly after the end of the civil war in 1939 in both Italy and Spain under Italian leadership. A separate language version was produced for each of the two countries. The Italian version was released on August 20, 1940, and the Spanish version was released in Madrid on October 28 of the same year. For political reasons - the Hitler-Stalin Pact of August 1939 meant that until June 1941, when the German Reich invaded the Soviet Union, anti-communist propaganda attacks were held back in Germany - a German showing of this film did not seem opportune. With the start of Operation Barbarossa , the propaganda machine against communism started up again, and L'assedio dell'Alcazar was released under the German title Alkazar on September 30, 1941 in the cinemas of the Third Reich.
The interior shots were taken in Cinecittà (Rome, Italy), the exterior shots in Toledo (Spain).
The film structures come from Gastone Medin . The Italian director Primo Zeglio led the second directing team in Spain to do the exterior shots.
Award
Due to its outstanding alliance-specific significance within a European-fascist cooperation, the strip was awarded the Coppa Mussolini at the Venice Film Festival in 1940 .
Historical background
When the Spanish Civil War broke out in July 1936, the city of Toledo was deep within the defenders of the Spanish Republic. There, in the Alcazar (Spanish for "fortress") had, however, under the leadership of the military governor of the city, Colonel José Moscardó , some 100 officers and soldiers, and 800 Guardia Civil -Men, Falange members, and several cadets of the Infantry Academy of Toledo withdrawn and entrenched and defended against a republican superiority. By the end of September of the same year, the fortress was besieged and shelled for three months before Franco's troops horrified the besieged.
Synchronized versions
The film was released in two dubbed versions in Germany, a Nazi version in 1941 and a politically “defused” version in the Federal Republic of 1955. The German revision also received a new title with the Battle of the Alcazar and started on April 8, 1955.
Synchronization 1941
This version was made by Lüdtke & Rohnstein, Berlin. Kurt Werther directed the dialogue, and Georg Rothkegel wrote the dialogue book.
| role | actor | Voice actor |
|---|---|---|
| Captain Vela | Fosco Giachetti | Paul Klinger |
| Carmen Herrera | Mireille Balin | Lu Neatly |
| Conchita Alvarez | Maria Denis | Ruth Hellberg |
| Colonel Moscardó | Rafael Calvo | Walter Werner |
| Francisco | Aldo Fiorelli | Harry Giese |
| Pedro | Andrea Checchi | Claus Clausen |
| Captain Alba | Carlo Tamberlani | Fritz Ley |
| Pablo Montez | Silvio Bagolini | Rudolf Schündler |
| Major Vilanova | Guido Notary | Werner Scharf |
| Delegate from Madrid | Guglielmo Sinaz | Paul Dahlke |
Synchronization 1955
This frame was made by Karlheinz Brunnemann .
| role | actor | Voice actor |
|---|---|---|
| Captain Vela | Fosco Giachetti | Wolfgang Lukschy |
| Carmen Herrera | Mireille Balin | Marion Degler |
| Conchita Alvarez | Maria Denis | Maria Koerber |
| Colonel Moscardó | Rafael Calvo | Walther Suessenguth |
| Francisco | Aldo Fiorelli | Eckart Dux |
Reviews
The star director of the post-war period and film critic at the time, Michelangelo Antonioni, said in 1940: “The Venetian surprise: the Venetian award is well deserved for the commitment with which the film was produced and for the solidity of its structure. It's an inconsistent film, a war film, robust and not at all refined ... the rhetoric and emphasis are on the cusp of heroism resurrections ... but Genina has the bourgeois side (if you will allow me that phrase) of the story not neglected. Because what happens in the Alcázar is a bit like the life of a small town with its births, its deaths ... and its love stories. (…) In our opinion, the epic meaning of this work also results from the sacrifice and the unique drama that is exuded here, and this is where the work's merit (sic!) Lies. "
The Nazi press in Hitler's Germany also expressed benevolence about the film, which now appeared politically opportune after the attack on the Soviet Union. Here they raved "about the foundations of a new European order that rise above the ruins of the Alkazar."
Even in neutral Switzerland, the fascist propaganda film was well received. The Swiss film calendar (Geneva) in 1941 said: "Director Augusto Genina deserves special praise for the crowd scenes: They are better than in American films, because they are more cultivated and really inspired ... a resounding success."
Kay Wenigers The film's great personal dictionary wrote in Augusto Genina's biography that "Alkazar" sang "the song of praise to the fighting spirit of international fascism."
In the Lexicon of International Films it says: “Heroic epic to the glory of the Franco troops who defended Toledo Castle against the republican besiegers during the Spanish Civil War in 1936. Technically and dramatically handsome fascist propaganda film whose historical simplifications are annoying. A failed love story included in the war provides sentimental accents. "
Individual evidence
- ↑ Michelangelo Antonioni in Cinema, September 25, 1940 edition
- ↑ quoted from Boguslaw Drewniak: Der deutsche Film 1938–1945 . A complete overview. Düsseldorf 1987, p. 832
- ↑ cit. n. ibid.
- ^ The large personal dictionary of films, Volume 3, p. 222. Berlin 2001
- ↑ Alkazar. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed May 10, 2019 .
Web links
- Alcazar in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Alkazar in the two German versions on dievergessenenfilme.wordpress.com